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Sunday, August 1, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Blog Post: Thing 8 – Free Technology Resources
Write about the five tools or website you found that will be useful in your teaching.
1. Common Craft is a great tool that breaks confusing information down into an easy to understand tutorial that is geared to making life easier for someone who wants to advance in their technology knowledge. In the blog on July 28, 2010, Byrne posted three Common Craft videos that clearly explained to to use Blogs, Wikis, and RSS. I especially liked how they explained Wikis. It makes setting up meetings or sharing lesson plans across a network of teachers. As a special education teacher, I am constantly trying to improve my teaching ideas and methods and I feel that Common Craft is a site that makes knowing how to use this useful information a very easy.
2. http://www.childtopia.com/index.php?newlang=eng - being a special education teacher, I am always looking for new things to present to my students and in this economy, free is even better. After exploring this website, I was amazed at how easy it was to set up educational activities for my students and give each of my students access to computers and technologies. It is essential that I do not neglect my students because of their disabilities. By giving them fun games to play, gives them a sense of freedom and accomplishment.
3. Free Sound Effects Library- This is a neat site that is filled with a vast amount of sound FX that I can use while doing a lesson. Say I were doing a lesson on African animals and the students wanted to know what a lion sounded like. I can link to this website and show my class what a real African Lion sounded like. This is pretty cool. The possibilities are endless.
4. School Clip Art- As a teacher who is constantly trying to create my own curriculum, I can use School Clip Art to add a little extra to my worksheets. Or if I am sending home a newsletter to my parents, I can add a picture of our school mascot.
5. Google for Teachers II- Free 33 Page Guide- This guide is a great tool to have as I want to expand my Google arsenal as I become a better teacher through the use of Google and all that it has to offer. Before this course, I only used Google for Search, Email, and Calendar. Now I am so much more equip to start this next school year stronger then ever.
1. Common Craft is a great tool that breaks confusing information down into an easy to understand tutorial that is geared to making life easier for someone who wants to advance in their technology knowledge. In the blog on July 28, 2010, Byrne posted three Common Craft videos that clearly explained to to use Blogs, Wikis, and RSS. I especially liked how they explained Wikis. It makes setting up meetings or sharing lesson plans across a network of teachers. As a special education teacher, I am constantly trying to improve my teaching ideas and methods and I feel that Common Craft is a site that makes knowing how to use this useful information a very easy.
2. http://www.childtopia.com/index.php?newlang=eng - being a special education teacher, I am always looking for new things to present to my students and in this economy, free is even better. After exploring this website, I was amazed at how easy it was to set up educational activities for my students and give each of my students access to computers and technologies. It is essential that I do not neglect my students because of their disabilities. By giving them fun games to play, gives them a sense of freedom and accomplishment.
3. Free Sound Effects Library- This is a neat site that is filled with a vast amount of sound FX that I can use while doing a lesson. Say I were doing a lesson on African animals and the students wanted to know what a lion sounded like. I can link to this website and show my class what a real African Lion sounded like. This is pretty cool. The possibilities are endless.
4. School Clip Art- As a teacher who is constantly trying to create my own curriculum, I can use School Clip Art to add a little extra to my worksheets. Or if I am sending home a newsletter to my parents, I can add a picture of our school mascot.
5. Google for Teachers II- Free 33 Page Guide- This guide is a great tool to have as I want to expand my Google arsenal as I become a better teacher through the use of Google and all that it has to offer. Before this course, I only used Google for Search, Email, and Calendar. Now I am so much more equip to start this next school year stronger then ever.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thing 07 - RSS Feeds and Blog Readers
I have always seen that little RSS icon on web pages that I frequently go to but never knew what that icon was. After creating my Google Reader page back in Thing3, I still did not know how to use the page to its full advantage. It is great to have a page like this to be able to stay connected to what I want to be connected to and nothing else. I have not been a big blog reader in the past, but now that I am becoming more attuned to how they can improve my life or keep me entertained, I will start exploring what is going on in the ciber world through blogs. When I find one that I enjoy reading, then I will connect it to my Google Reader page. This "Thing" has opened my eyes to another amazing thing that the internet has to offer.
In my classroom, I can subscribe to pages or blogs that relate to different teaching topics such as different curriculum, fun activities to do with special needs students, field trip ideas, etc. It would be nice to have Google reader on hand every time I log into my google account to get the latest blogs. Each student can have their own google reader account and I will manage what they subscribe to. They can be connected to the latest news from their favorite websites that are kid friendly. The possibilities are endless using this recently discovered RSS Feeds online.
In my classroom, I can subscribe to pages or blogs that relate to different teaching topics such as different curriculum, fun activities to do with special needs students, field trip ideas, etc. It would be nice to have Google reader on hand every time I log into my google account to get the latest blogs. Each student can have their own google reader account and I will manage what they subscribe to. They can be connected to the latest news from their favorite websites that are kid friendly. The possibilities are endless using this recently discovered RSS Feeds online.
Thing 6 - Image Generators
Image Generators was so much fun to play around with. It would be fun to make posters of my class for my own keeping as classroom decor to remember my classes from year to year. There are so many ways to create fun and very unique Images to share with friends and family. I had a great time with this. This is my wife's family during our Cruse to Catalina Island a couple years ago. I am sitting in the back!
Thing 5 - Flickr and Photo Sharing
I have been using Picasa for a while now because I have a Gmail account and it is connected through Google and not yahoo. I did my Thing5 using Picasa instead of Flickr. It was fun exploring the different things that can be done using a photo sharing sight such as Picasa. I have not done this yet, but I think that this next school year I will try to take a lot of pictures of my students doing whatever they do best and allow my parents the opportunity to view our classroom in a private session that only those privileged will be able to have access. This is a great way to share with parents and other school staff all of the fun things we do as a class. I know that in special education, parents want the best for their children and want their children to feel that they are loved and respected. By allowing parents the ability to actually see the love will allow for a close relationship between school and home. I am really excited to implement this in my classroom. By having Instructional Assistants in my class, I can delegate one to be my photographer and Picasa updater after each adventure I take my students on. Should be fun!
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